Thursday, January 29, 2026

Happy (Yooper) Birthday!

Hi everyone!

Today is my father-in-law's 95th birthday!  Although he and my MIL winter in Arizona, they are originally from the U.P. of Michigan, so Stamp Simply's Michigan themed sets are really popular for cards for our extended family members.


I just recently added the lower peninsula set to my collection and thought it would be fun to use the two together to make a card for him.  


And here is the U.P.  I paired the Michigan sets with a set/sentiment from our birthday collection which just happens to be on sale this week!  :)  Keep scrolling for more info!  


And here's the inside.  We spend a lot of time out on the lakes fishing when we visit up there, so this is just perfect!  

Here's a closer view!  I hope you can see the sparkle! 

Supplies:
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, January 22, 2026

John 3:16

Hi everyone!  An order of stamps, dies and papers arrived from Stamp Simply yesterday, and after a quick flip through of this paper pad, the idea for this combination of designer print and scripture came to mind.  At first I had planned to cover most of the map with vellum and stamp the scripture on the sheer top layer, but the text didn't show well enough that way, so the plan evolved to this framed version.  


This pretty Spellbinders Label 59 die has a very detailed coordinating die set, but I opted to keep this project really clean and simple.  


It seemed appropriate to use a piece of Ink Drops Earth for the inside.  

Just out of curiosity, I decided to experiment with adhering the vellum to the underlying layers on the inside.  Rather than covering the edges with a frame as I'd done on the front, for the inside sentiment I adhered the vellum to a same-sized piece of ivory card stock using a very thin line of Mono Multi glue along the edges and then added that to a larger piece of blue card stock.  

While I was pleasantly surprised that the glue didn't show, the edges were a little gummy and sticky so I still prefer the cleaner, more elegant look of the frame on the front.  (I'll add one to the inside too if I can find another bit of blue card stock...no luck so far! I might have already used the last!)

Supplies:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday, January 15, 2026

He First Loved Us


Hi y'all!  I realized as I sat down to type today's post that Valentine's Day is only one month away!  I know that it is traditionally celebrated as a romantic holiday but I have always thought of it as an extra opportunity to express my love not just for my husband but for my family and friends as well.  While I've used a romantic rosy red here, this card would really work in just about any color, and with Craft Consortium's Ink Drops series there are a lot of choices!  

This was a really quick one to put together because there is not much stamping.  It took several passes with the fishtail banner die through the die cutter, then I stacked them all, sliced them into three pieces (keep them in order if you care about the print aligning!) and then glued them onto a rectangle of card stock.  Two of the three portions go on the card front.  


The sentiment was stamped in the space in between.  


The remaining small square third portion is on the inside.  

Supplies:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Love Letters


Hi everyone!  With the Christmas and New Year holidays behind us and the Mardi Gras season firmly under way, it's time to turn our eyes toward the Spring holidays!  I'm here today with a romantic love letter for Valentine's Day.  Cards like this make me smile because as a back-in-the-days-before-email Navy wife, my husband and I have written and received many old-fashioned real paper love letters from each other over the years.  Those six month deployments sure felt like they lasted forever!


Today's card is a combination of one stamp set, two paper pads, scraps of metallic paper and several die sets.  So easy and so much fun to put together!


A very frilly bow of white tulle holds the "keys to my heart" (keys - Man of Knowledge dies set; heart - Farmhouse Hearts dies set) and slightly obscures the "zip code" (our wedding year) which is adhered to a "stamped" envelope of love letters (Tim Holtz Postales die set).  


The sentiment on the inside is another from the same Farmhouse Simple Sentiments set.  

Supplies:

Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: ,

Thursday, January 1, 2026

Celebrate!


Happy New Year!

Welcome to all of you, and welcome 2026!  

I'm here with a clean and simple "Celebrate" card that might be for the New Year, or maybe to celebrate longer daylight, or it could even be for Easter! It was inspired by all the Narcissus bulbs (and amaryllis too!) that I've been seeing for sale at the garden center lately. Have you ever "forced" bulbs to bloom inside during the Winter?  I used to force paper white narcissus almost every year, but I haven't done it in quite a while.  It's not too late, maybe I need to try it again!  It is a great reminder that Solstice is behind us, the days are getting longer already and Spring is indeed coming!


It is hard to capture pale colors and sparkle on camera even inside a light box, but hopefully you can kinda see the pale blues, blue-greens and yellow-greens on the flower petals and the clear Wink of Stella sparkle that I layered on top of the Copics.  I used a gold metallic jelly roll marker to color the tips of the stamen.  Sometimes it seems like the flowers in real life almost look like spun sugar, and that is what that sparkle reminds me of, even on paper.  


The card's inside is super simple.  Do you do a word focus for the year?  Maybe this should be mine.  

My wish is that this new year will be filled with hope, warmth, love, health and happiness for everyone.  Blessings to you and yours!  

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)